Aged Public Hospitals Need ICT Wiring Before Full Digitalisation: TM One VP

Alifah Zainuddin | CodeBlue

MOH must go back to basics before implementing health care digitalisation. A TM One executive veep says many “very old” public hospitals lack the necessary infrastructure and must first install new ICT wiring before transitioning to digital health records.

Shazurawati Abd Karim, executive vice president at TM One, speaks at the MIH Megatrends 2024 conference in Kuala Lumpur on October 25, 2024, organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with KPJ Healthcare.

Shazurawati Abd Karim, executive vice president at TM One, speaks at the MIH Megatrends 2024 conference in Kuala Lumpur on October 25, 2024, organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with KPJ Healthcare.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — The Ministry of Health’s (MOH) ageing public hospitals need major ICT upgrades to support digital health records, according to a top executive at TM One, the enterprise and public sector solutions arm of Telekom Malaysia Bhd.

Shazurawati Abd Karim, executive vice president at TM One, said many public hospitals lack the necessary ICT infrastructure and would first require new wiring before a full digital shift can occur.

“When it comes to public hospitals, the first thing is that many of the hospitals are very old – they have been around for a very long time. So, before full digitalisation, you need a very good, new kind of ICT wiring,” Shazurawati told the MIH Megatrends 2024 conference last October 25, organised by MOH in collaboration with KPJ Healthcare.

She was responding to a question about the limited participation of major private companies in digitalising MOH hospitals’ infrastructure and connectivity.

Limited access to devices like desktops and laptops also remains a bottleneck for the public health service in building a digital ecosystem. “Connectivity alone is not sufficient; it’s only one part of the whole ecosystem in a public hospital. The end goal is to have the ICT portion ready, especially for [electronic] medical record sharing,” Shazurawati said.

The country’s public health service predates independence. According to the MOH’s official site, the earliest hospitals in Malaysia were built to treat mining workers, in line with the expansion of the mining industry in Perak. Taiping Hospital, formerly known as Yeng Wah Hospital, is recognised as one of the first and oldest hospitals in Malaysia, built in 1880.

At the end of the 19th century, Perak had 15 hospitals – the most in Malaysia at the time – comprising Taiping Hospital, Teluk Intan Hospital, Tapah Hospital, Sungai Siput Hospital, Slim River Hospital, Seri Manjung Hospital, Selama Hospital, Parit Buntar Hospital, Kuala Kangsar Hospital, Kampar Hospital, Ipoh General Hospital (now known as Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital), Gerik Hospital, Changkat Melintang Hospital, Batu Gajah Hospital, and Tanjung Rambutan Hospital. All 15 hospitals are still operational today.

Here in the national capital, Kuala Lumpur Hospital (HKL) is over 150 years old, having been built in 1870. Last year, CodeBlue reported that HKL, one of the country’s largest and busiest hospitals, processes up to 16,000 medical records manually.

“We work closely with MOH to drive that (electronic medical records) forward. You can see in Budget 2025, announced by the prime minister, that the government has allocated more funds for the MOH to support this mission,” Shazurawati added.

The MOH’s budget allocation for 2025 was raised to RM45.27 billion, a 9.8 per cent increase from RM41.22 billion allocated this year, with a focus on health infrastructure improvements. Key funding boosts include an 885 per cent increase for renovations, upgrades, and repairs, from RM41.3 million to RM407 million, and an 86 per cent increase for equipment and vehicles, from RM561.9 million to RM1.05 billion.

Digitalisation May Help Curb Medical Inflation

Ahmad Haniff Jamaluddin (second from left), deputy director of the financial inclusion department at Bank Negara Malaysia, speaks at the MIH Megatrends 2024 conference in Kuala Lumpur on October 25, 2024, organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with KPJ Healthcare.
Ahmad Haniff Jamaluddin (second from left), deputy director of the financial inclusion department at Bank Negara Malaysia, speaks at the MIH Megatrends 2024 conference in Kuala Lumpur on October 25, 2024, organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with KPJ Healthcare.

Ahmad Haniff Jamaluddin, deputy director of the financial inclusion department at Bank Negara Malaysia, said that digitalising health care operations could help reduce medical inflation, which has been pushing up health care costs nationwide.

“One of the reasons we are involved in this sector is because I mentioned medical inflation just now, right? By digitalising operations – like, for example, having more telemedicine and leveraging on technology – we hope this would, in the long run, reduce excess costs in medical services so that they’re more accessible to the masses,” Ahmad Haniff said.

Both TM One and Bank Negara executives said that automation across hospitals could streamline operations, potentially easing financial burdens on both healthcare providers and patients.

“Automation in hospital administration, as well as in RPA (robotic process automation) and advanced robotics, could hopefully reduce operational costs,” Shazurawati said.

While automation may eventually cut operational costs and boost efficiency, it can still be very expensive for hospitals. The National Heart Institute (IJN) previously told the media that its ongoing digitalisation exercise, which went live last month, has cost nearly RM40 million this year alone in facilities, upgrading equipment and software, and staffing.

Building A Cloud-Based System For Medical Records

TM One is promoting “cloudification” as a way to store and access medical records. Currently, patients must fill out similar information at each visit, a redundancy that Shazurawati says a centralised cloud system could solve.

“We’ve talked about medical records – how do we, as a nation, put medical records on the cloud? How can we, as patients, access our medical records anytime, anywhere, across any device?” she asked.

Health data from devices like smartwatches and fitness apps can also feed into this system, Shazurawati said, as they offer real-time insights to improve self-management and preventative care.

“How many of us wake up and check our smartwatches to see how well we slept last night? Or check our phones to see how many steps we’ve taken? If this data could be managed or shared more widely through the cloud, I think proactive health care services, provided by both service providers and users, could help address health issues like diabetes,” Shazurawati said.

TM One has several products like TM Cloud Alpha, Sovereign Cloud, and the National Cloud that can support health care providers and app developers. “We welcome you to test your applications on our cloud,” Shazurawati added, pointing to TM One’s innovation centre in Cyberjaya as a resource for digital health care development.